Original equipment Jeep® heaters are sometimes called "placebo
heaters" since any heat you feel is only in your mind. You hear the fan running
but only a wisp of hot air comes out. Below are a couple of procedures that might
help. One is how to open up and maintain
an original heater motor. However, even at its best it's pretty lame. OK, at
its best it's completely lame. Take a look at how to replace
the motor with one from a mid to late '70s Chevy. And click here to see how to add relays to the system to
take the load off the original wiring and switch.

Heater Motor Information and Identification

I've seen a number of web pages dealing with how to switch the
anemic Jeep heater fan motor with a much better one from a mid to late 70s Chevy truck.
Here's a link to one of those sites. This link has good information on
how to get the motor you need at an auto parts place. However, this link (like all the
others I found) deal with only the newer model CJs, from about '77 onward. There was
nothing about how to do this on an older model like mine. So, I ventured into
unknown territory to save YOU from having to do it!

Old Heater Motor

From my research on this it appears that older CJs up to about 1970
or so can be modified. Heaters in the older Jeeps will be on the driver's side of
the Jeep. The fan motor faces the driver and is near the driver's left knee.
The procedure outlined below should apply to this early era of Jeep CJ.

Jeeps from 1971 to mid-1977 would be very difficult to upgrade.
Heaters in these years will be on the passenger side of the Jeep, and the heater
motor will be inside facing the passenger. Due to the way they did the fan motor
mounting plate, upgrading one from this era would involve a lot of fabrication.

CJs from late 1977 on up should be a relatively easy bolt-in,
although you'll have to drain the cooling system just to get the whole thing out.
The heater will be on the passenger side of the Jeep, but the fan motor housing will be
sticking through the firewall. See any one of the many sites on the web for details
on how to do this style of replacement motor. This last group is the one all the web
pages I found deal with.

Years

Location

Modification

Comment

Up to 1970

Fan motor faces
the driver and is near the driver's left knee.

The procedure
outlined below should apply to this early era of Jeep CJ.

See procedure
below.

1971 to
mid-1977

Fan motor on
passenger side of the Jeep facing the passenger.

Difficult to
upgrade.

Due to the way
they did the fan motor mounting plate, upgrading one from this era would involve a lot of
fabrication.

1977 on

Fan motor on
passenger side of the Jeep with motor housing sticking through the firewall.

Relatively easy
bolt-in.

Drain the
cooling system to get the whole thing out. See other web sites for procedure.

First thing is this all assumes you have an existing heater system
in your Jeep and that it's the one located left of the drivers side under the dash.
You will not need to drain the cooling system to remove the motor.
You'll need the old fan and a few other parts from that old system. Get a suitable
motor; I recommend getting a new one. It makes no sense to go to this much work just
to put in an old motor that may or may not last. When you get to the auto parts
store, ask them for a heater motor for a '73 Chevy Blazer with a 350 and air
conditioning. This will run about $20 or so. Pick up some 20A fuses while
you're there. Mine were the SFE style (about 5/8" long). Check yours
before you go and get the style and size you need.

Now, before doing anything else, mark the old mounting plate and
heater housing for correct orientation (I like to use bits of masking tape). This
will greatly simplify re-installing the new motor. Transfer this locator mark to the
new motor plate and the spacer you'll make a little later.

Next, pull the old motor. On the older Jeeps this is a much
simpler job than later models since there is no firewall hole to enlarge and you don't
need to drain the cooling system. Unplug the hi and low wires from the switch, and
unscrew the 5 screws holding it in place and it's out.

In my case, in order to use the original fan I had to make a spacer
to go between the new motor mounting plate and the heater housing. I made one out of
3/4" thick wood (particle board). Use the old plate for a guide since you can
disassemble it from the old motor and lay it flat on the wood. Mark all the mounting
holes, then just freehand a circle that stays about 1/4" outside all the holes.
Draw another circle that stays about 1/4" away from the mounting holes but on the
inside. Cut out the spacer.

Now here's the interesting part, and this is what fooled me when I
first did this. The old motor and the new motor have different rotation directions.
When you spin a squirrel cage this turns out to be a big problem.
The squirrel cage fin pattern and the heater housing design must match up with the
rotational direction of the motor or you won't get any more airflow than you had before,
and you might get even less. So, you're going to have to reverse the new motor's
rotational direction. Now stop whimpering and whining, it's pretty easy.

Drill out or grind off the 4 rivets holding the mounting plate to
the motor. You can then lift the top end of the motor off the motor body. Be
careful as there will be 2 brushes, 2 brush springs and a shaft washer that will want to
jump out. It's OK to let them jump out, just don't lose them.

To reverse the motor, all you have to do is swap the position of the
brush assembly that is grounded with the brush assembly that is "hot." (Note:
thanks to Roy Jenson for help on how to do this. It's still magic to me that
swapping the brushes reverses the rotation.) After that, reassemble
everything. It takes a little dexterity to get the brushes back into place but it's
not too bad. I recommend you use a pop rivet gun and pop rivet everything back
together.

Next, you will note that in addition to the mounting holes on the
new mounting plate that there are a number of "extra" holes that normally you
wouldn't use. However, I found that it was much easier to use these extra holes to
screw the spacer to the plate so it doesn't flop around when you try to install it later.
Use the old short sheet metal screws from the old motor for this.

Drill the mounting holes through the wood spacer. Get some
longer sheet metal screws (they have to go through the plate and the spacer now) and mount
the new unit.

Put in your 20A fuse. You will have to make up a new power
wire harness. I made one that allows a low and hi fan speed. For the low speed
you will need dropping resistors. I'm using two 2-ohm 25W wire-wound resistors wired
together in parallel giving me a 1-ohm total resistance which provides a good low
speed. You can get these resistors from Radio Shack® online, a
local electronics store, or go to a junk yard and get the heater resistors
there. Wire the low speed terminal of the switch to the resistor(s), and the
resistor(s) to the power terminal of the new motor. Wire the hi speed switch
terminal straight to the same power terminal on the new motor. Radio Shack® sells
some neat little spade lug adapters that will make it easier to attach the 2 different
wires to the motor's single power terminal.

New Heater Motor

That's it. You will now have a real blower in your heater
system and you might even get some air out of the defrosters (if you have the defroster
windshield option).

By adding some relays to control the heater you can take a load off
the original wiring and switch. It's a much better way to wire up the controls.
First, here's the original heater schematic. These are 800X600 images and may
take some time to load depending on your connection speed:

The old heater fan motor started squealing this winter so I finally
pulled it and figured out how to take it apart for cleaning and lubrication. As with
a lot of other things on this older Jeep®, the heater fan motor was made to be
disassembled and maintained. Below are the steps I went through to get the motor
apart. However, while this might get your old motor going it will not fix the slow
rpm and poor airflow output. For that you mustreplace the old motor.

1965 Jeep® CJ5 Heater Motor

Maintenance

Disassembly

Mark motor mounting plate and heater case with tape so you
can correctly orient the motor during re-assembly. Clean the parts as needed as you go
along.

Using 2 flat blade screwdrivers, gently pry the fan unit off the motor spindle.
It should come off pretty easily even if it looks like its seized on the shaft. Fan
and motor spindle are keyed, so marking the fan is not necessary.

Mark the relative position of the mounting plate and motor housing with tape. This will
indicate which way the plate goes back on, and which side faces away from the motor.

Loosen 2 nuts holding mounting plate to motor. Gently pull the plate from the motor. Use
care, as there is a piece of rubber acting as a shock mount that sits between the mounting
plate and motor.

Loosen 2 more nuts holding motor case screws. One of these also holds the ground wire
pigtail as well, so note its position or mark it for later.

Pull the case screws out of the motor.

Gently pull motor case apart. The rear of the case will pull easily compared to the
front of the case (where the spindle protrudes). If the rear comes off the axle the
brushes will come loose. This is OK, just be sure not to lose the brush springs or the
shim washers from the rear of the axle.

Pull the axle from the front case. You have to ease it out past the field windings in
the front case but it will come right out.

Check to see if the front axle shims have come off the axle. They will be inside the
front case. Remove them and set aside.

Lubrication

With the motor apart, use some medium machine oil and lube the bearing
wicks in the end of each half of the motor case.

Lube the axle and shim washers (not too heavily).

Re-assembly

Ensure the rear case axle shims are on the axle. Press one of the brush
springs into place, and then push the brush into its holder. You will see a "P"
stamped into the brush; this should be facing up. Do the same with the other brush
assembly.

While holding the brushes in place, gently lower the axle into place in the rear case.
Use a small screwdriver to hold each brush back in turn as you lower the axle down.

Make sure the front axle shim washers are in place. Gently thread the front of the axle
into its bushing in the front case. You have to work it past the field coils but it will
go in on an angle.

Once everything is in place you can close the motor case halves together.

Align the case holes and reinstall the motor case screws ensuring the ground wire is
back in place correctly. Tighten bolts firmly but not too tight.

Reinstall the mounting plate using the tape markers as a guide. Tighten the plate bolts
onto the motor case screws firmly but not too tightly.

Install the fan on the motor spindle and tighten with 3/8" nut only as tightly as
needed.

Reinstall heater motor unit into heater case using tape markers as a guide to position.